Characteristics of Graphite Films on Silicon- and Carbon-Terminated Faces of Silicon Carbide
Ultrathin graphite films, with thickness from 1-30 atomic layers, are grown on the Si-terminated and C-terminated faces of 6H-SiC and 4H-SiC via thermal desorption of silicon in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chamber or in a high-vacuum RF furnace. Graphite LEED patterns and atom-resolved STM images on...
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | en_US |
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Georgia Institute of Technology
2007
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1853/14024 |
| Summary: | Ultrathin graphite films, with thickness from 1-30 atomic layers, are grown on the Si-terminated and C-terminated faces of 6H-SiC and 4H-SiC via thermal desorption of silicon in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chamber or in a high-vacuum RF furnace. Graphite LEED patterns and atom-resolved STM images on graphite films prove that epitaxial growth is achieved on both faces of the SiC substrate. The thickness of graphite films is estimated with modeling the Si:C Auger peak intensities. Through LEED and STM investigations of monolayer graphite grown on the Si-face of SiC(0001) surface, we show the existence of a SiC 6R3*6R3 reconstructed layer between graphite films and the SiC substrate. The complicated LEED patterns can be interpreted partially by the kinematic scattering of the interfacial layer and the 6*6 surface corrugation. Further scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements indicate that the graphite films remain continuous over the steps between domains. Carbon nanotubes and carbon nanocaps cover about 40% of the graphitized C-face of SiC. The remaining areas are flat graphite films. Graphite ribbons were made through E-beam lithography. After the lithography process, the graphitic features remain on flat region underneath HSQ residues. |
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